Game music of the day: Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

GR's ongoing tribute to the beloved world of videogame music

Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.

April 12, 2010

Game: Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

Song: Versus Mode

Composers: Nagao, Tsukamoto and Hikichi

Above: "Versus Mode" from Mean Bean Machine

You know how Sonic's so popular Sega can punt anything out the door with his name on it and it'll sell? That was the case in 1993 as well, when a popular Japanese puzzler (Puyo Puyo) was appropriated and transformed into a Sonic-soaked cash-in. Luckily, the twisty-turny puzzle gameplay was left alone and we actually ended up with a fantastic game that's unfortunately dated with its Sonic-cartoon license.

Above: Somehow a Sonic cartoon license made a puzzle game MORE boring

This specific song, played during the two-player versus matches, is pretty kickin'. However, it's also lifted straight from theJapanese original, only now it sounds even more like a Sega Genesis game (longtime players know the "Sega" sound). The whole soundtrack is surprisingly strong, and much better than Nintendo's lame-o Puyo clone, Kirby's Avalanche.

Holy SHIT this is a bouncy remix. It comes from OCR submitterJivemaster, and takes the already up-tempo Mean Bean Machine music and injects it with an infectious disco-beat. Hard to tolerate if you hate silly-ass dance music, but I can't listen to it enough.